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Duckman What in the world does Duckman have to be so smug about? This trite new cartoon series acts as if it's the hippest satire on cable,...DuckmanCartoons/Animation What in the world does Duckman have to be so smug about? This trite new cartoon series acts as if it's the hippest satire on cable,...1994-03-25

Genre: Cartoons/Animation; Lead Performer: Jason Alexander; Status: In Season

Posted March 25 1994 — 12:00 AM EST

What in the world does Duckman have to be so smug about? This trite new cartoon series acts as if it’s the hippest satire on cable, but look at some of its targets: TV, hard-boiled detective stories, and hypocritical televangelists. Oooh, how gutsy!

Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander provides the voice of Duckman, a harried private-eye fowl. The animation is all jagged lines and bright primary colors — you’re supposed to think you’re seeing something cutting-edge just because all the characters look as if they’ve been snipped by rusty scissors. Duckman’s notion of a good joke is to suggest that there’s a channel called the Let’s Talk in Pig Latin Network. When it wants to parody modern art, it offers an artist who looks like Andy Warhol, but whose name is Duchamp — how postmodernist recherché!

Lest you think Duckman is a highbrow bore, be assured that it’s also tedious on the lowbrow level — one regular character is an elderly woman whose sole contribution to the show is to pass gas occasionally. D-